MICHELLE McMANUS admits she and Gaelic boyband Manran suffered a case of writer’s block when they met up to pen their single for the STV Appeal.

The Pop Idol winner had teamed up with the traditional Hebridean pop outfit after a successful collaboration for BBC Alba in January, and expected it would be plain-sailing again.

But the pressure of coming up with a charity single meant the project looked to be dead in the water after two fruitless nights of trying to come up with the goods.

Michelle said: “We had three rehearsal sessions booked and after two nights, we had nothing. Absolutely nothing. I was thinking, ‘This is never going to happen’.

“It was a nightmare. We could hear other bands playing when we went out of the studio to clear our heads. We looked at each other and thought, ‘What have we done here?’.

“After the second rehearsal, I came home, felt sick to my stomach and thought it was a big mistake.”

Michelle felt the pressure more because she herself had come up with the idea for Manran to record a charity single for the STV appeal, after catching the band’s performance at this year’s Celtic Connections Festival.

She said: “I had the privilege of working with the boys on a show I did for BBC Alba.

“They’re a young Scottish band and are genuinely crossing over between Gaelic trad and pop. They have young girls following them and you don’t get that often with Gaelic music.”

Impressed by their energetic performance and flawless musicianship, she spoke with STV Appeal producer Ian Sizeland about getting them to record a suitably rousing track to underpin the annual fundraising bash.

STV were soon on board and trad music legend Phil Cunningham agreed to produce the track, recorded in the state-of-the-art Riverside Studios in Busby, where Teenage Fanclub and Jesus and Mary Chain have recorded. Everyone agreed to give their time for free. All they needed was a song.

He said: “The writing was a nightmare. STV wanted something upbeat with a meaning, something catchy with a sort of ‘we’ll be there for you’ motto.

“Having never written together before, we had to go into the studio and get some different ideas together, try to get a song to take some shape.

“That proved to be difficult and quite stressful because we all had different ideas, and when you put all that into one pot there were a lot of different angles.”

Then, on the final night of rehearsal, something changed.

Michelle said: “Ross, the bass player, started playing a tune, lead singer Norrie started singing over the top of it, I started harmonising, Scotty started with the drums, and before we knew it, we had a song coming together from nowhere. It just flew by after that. We went in with nothing and came away with a really good song.

“And when Phil Cunningham was finished with it, he had turned a good song into what we think is a great song.”

The track, Take You There, features Michelle on distinctive backing vocals.

Having already topped the charts, then turning her back on a music career after things went sour after her 2004 Pop Idol win, Michelle – who has been studying Gaelic for a year – has no intention of the song being seen as ‘a comeback’.

In fact, the former presenter of STV’s The Hour cringes at the very suggestion.

She said: “I initially didn’t want to be on it because I didn’t want people to think I saw this as my way back into music. I’ve said a dozen times before I don’t think I have the hunger within me to go through all that again. I was worried people would think it was me doing this for the wrong reasons. That’s why it had to be someone else’s track. It’s very definitely Manran featuring Michelle McManus, not the other way around.

“It had to still sound like a Manran record. They represent all that is beautiful about Scottish trad music.

“We took massive inspiration from bands like Deacon Blue and Del Amitri, and looked at all the great Scottish bands we loved, but also traditional music with the likes of Phil and Ally. We looked at all of these bands and tried to get a feel for their lyrics, their sound.

“I’m the biggest supporter of the Gaelic language, but we didn’t want to do it in Gaelic because we wanted to make it as accessible as possible.

“So Norrie and Phil came up with the idea of putting Gaelic vocals down.

“In the middle section of Loch Lomond, by Runrig, everyone sings, ‘home, home, we’re going home’, but it’s actually Gaelic – it translates as, ‘la la, my darling, la la, my sweetheart’. But when folk sing that at weddings, nobody knows that bit’s Gaelic, they all sing about going home. So we have subtle Gaelic vocals on the track too.”

And despite having no desire to launch an assault on the charts, she still hopes the song is heard by as many folk as possible.

She said: “I’d be lying to you if I said I wasn’t excited about it. I’ll never forget the experience of working with Phil for two days. And I love the song. I didn’t actually like some of the songs on my own album, and I can say that I didn’t write them or choose them. Other than All This Time, I wasn’t that bothered about most of them.

“But, and I don’t care if this sounds narcissistic, I genuinely love this track. I’ve been listening to it a lot at home.”

So after two successful collaborations with Manran, could this be an unexpected new chapter in Michelle’s singing career? Gary said: “We haven’t made any plans, but I definitely wouldn’t say we’d never work together again. Never say never.”

Michelle added: “If there was an opportunity I would jump at it. But Manran are their own band. They were nervous because they didn’t want to be known as Michelle McManus’s backing band, because they work so hard in their own right. That’s why it’s Manran featuring Michelle McManus.

“I’d work with them again in a minute, of course I would. But this isn’t about that. It’s about a great wee song and all the people involved in making it, giving their time for nothing. Everyone did it for the STV Appeal.”